Packing in public: Gun owners tired of hiding their weapons embrace 'open
carry'
Since 06-09-08
Ellen Jaskol/For The Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-opencarry7-2008jun07,0,3346099,full.story
Bill White, 24, a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder, wears his Colt pistol when he goes to his local Starbucks in Westminster, Colo.
Those who wear their guns in full sight are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm a common accessory.
By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 7, 2008
PROVO,
UTAH -- For years, Kevin Jensen carried a pistol everywhere he went, tucked
in a shoulder holster beneath his clothes.
In hot weather the holster was almost unbearable. Pressed against Jensen's
skin, the firearm was heavy and uncomfortable. Hiding the weapon made him
feel like a criminal.
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Then one evening he stumbled across a site that urged gun owners to do
something revolutionary: Carry your gun openly for the world to see as you
go about your business.
In most states there's no law against that.
Jensen thought about it and decided to give it a try. A couple of days
later, his gun was visible, hanging from a black holster strapped around his
hip as he walked into a Costco. His heart raced as he ordered a Polish dog
at the counter. No one called the police. No one stopped him.
Now Jensen carries his Glock 23 openly into his bank, restaurants and
shopping centers. He wore the gun to a Ron Paul rally. He and his wife,
Clachelle, drop off their 5-year-old daughter at elementary school with
pistols hanging from their hip holsters, and have never received a complaint
or a wary look.
Jensen said he tries not to flaunt his gun. "We don't want to show up and
say, 'Hey, we're here, we're armed, get used to it,' " he said.
But he and others who publicly display their guns have a common purpose.
The Jensens are part of a fledgling movement to make a firearm as common an
accessory as an iPod. Called "open carry" by its supporters, the movement
has attracted grandparents, graduate students and lifelong gun enthusiasts
like the Jensens.
"What we're trying to say is, 'Hey, we're normal people who carry guns,' "
said Travis Deveraux, 36, of West Valley, a Salt Lake City suburb. Deveraux
works for a credit card company and sometimes walks around town wearing a
cowboy hat and packing a pistol in plain sight. "We want the public to
understand it's not just cops who can carry guns."
Police acknowledge the practice is legal, but some say it makes their lives
tougher.
Police Chief John Greiner recalled that last year in Ogden, Utah, a man was
openly carrying a shotgun on the street. When officers pulled up to ask him
about the gun, he started firing. Police killed the man.
Greiner tells the story as a lesson for gun owners. "We've changed over the
last 200 years from the days of the wild, wild West," Greiner said. "Most
people don't openly carry. . . . If [people] truly want to open carry, they
ought to expect they'll be challenged more until people become comfortable
with it."
Jensen and others argue that police shouldn't judge the gun, but rather the
actions of the person carrying it. Jensen, 28, isn't opposed to attention,
however. It's part of the reason he brought his gun out in the open.
"At first, [open carry] was a little novelty," he said. "Then I realized the
chances of me educating someone are bigger than ever using it [the gun] in
self-defense. If it's in my pants or under my shirt I'm probably not going
to do anything with it."
As Clachelle pushed the shopping cart holding their two young children
during a recent trip to Costco, her husband admired the new holster wrapped
around her waist. "I like the look of that low-rise gun belt," he said.
The Jensens' pistols were snapped into holsters attached to black belts that
hug their waists. Guns are a fact of life in their household. Their
5-year-old daughter, Sierra, has a child-sized .22 rifle she handles only in
her parents' presence.
Clachelle is the daughter of a Central California police chief and began
shooting when she was about Sierra's age. She would take her parents' gun
when she went out and hide it in her purse because the firearm made her feel
safer.
"I love 'em," Clachelle said. "I wouldn't ever be without them."
Kevin Jensen's first encounter with guns came when he was 11: His
grandfather died and left him a 16-gauge shotgun. The gun stayed locked away
but fascinated Jensen through his teen years. He convinced his older brother
to take him shooting in the countryside near their home in a small town
south of Salt Lake City.
"I immediately fell in love with it," said Jensen, a lean man with
close-cropped hair and a precise gait that is a reminder of his five years
in the Army Reserve. "I like things that go boom."
Jensen kept as many as 10 guns in the couple's 1930s-style bungalow in
Santaquin, 21 miles southwest of Provo. In January 2005, he decided to get a
permit to carry a concealed weapon, mainly for self-defense.
"I'm not going to hide in the corner of a school and mall and wait for the
shooting to stop," he said.
When Jensen bought a Glock and the dealer threw in an external hip holster,
he began researching the idea of carrying the gun in public and came upon
OpenCarry.org.
Its website, run by two Virginia gun enthusiasts, claims 4,000 members
nationwide. It summarizes the varying laws in each state that permit or
forbid the practice. People everywhere have the right to prohibit weapons
from their property, and firearms are often banned in government buildings
such as courthouses.
According to an analysis by Legal Community Against Violence, a gun control
group in San Francisco that tracks gun laws, at least eight states largely
ban the practice, including Iowa and New Jersey. Those that allow it have
different restrictions: In California, people can openly carry only unloaded
guns.
Utah has no law prohibiting anyone from carrying a gun in public, as long as
it is two steps from firing -- for example, the weapon may have a loaded
clip but must be uncocked, with no bullets in the chamber. Those who obtain
a concealed-weapons permit in Utah don't have that restriction. Also, youths
under 18 can carry a gun openly with parental approval and a supervising
adult in close proximity.
Most of the time people don't notice Jensen's gun. That's not uncommon, said
John Pierce, a law student and computer consultant in Virginia who is a
co-founder of OpenCarry.org.
"People are carrying pagers, BlackBerrys, cellphones," Pierce said. "They
see a black lump on your belt and their eyes slide off."
Sometimes the reactions are comical. Bill White, a 24-year-old graduate
student in ancient languages at the University of Colorado at Boulder, wears
his Colt pistol out in the open when he goes to his local Starbucks. Earlier
this month a tourist from California spotted him and snapped a photo on his
cellphone.
"He said it would prove he was in the Wild West," White recalled.
But there are times when the response is more severe. Deveraux has been
stopped several times by police, most memorably in December when he was
walking around his neighborhood.
An officer pulled up and pointed his gun at Deveraux, warning he would shoot
to kill. In the end, eight officers arrived, cuffed Deveraux and took his
gun before Deveraux convinced them they had no legal reason to detain him.
Deveraux saw the incident as not giving ground on his rights. "I'm proud
that happened," he said.
Cases like this are talked about during regular gatherings of those who
favor open carry. At a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant in the Salt Lake City
suburb of Sandy, more than 40 civilians with guns strapped to their hips
took over a corner of the restaurant, eating pasta and boisterously sharing
stories.
Hassles with law enforcement were a badge of honor for some.
Travis White, 19, who has ear and chin piercings, congratulated Brandon
Trask, 21, on carrying openly for the first time that night. "Just wait
until you get confronted by a cop," White said. "It'll make you feel brave."
Having pistols strapped around their waists made Shel Anderson, 67, and his
wife, Kaye, 63, feel more secure. Longtime recreational shooters, they began
to carry their pistols openly after a spate of home-invasion robberies in
their neighborhood. The firearms can serve as a warning to predators, they
said.
"I decided I want to have as much of an advantage as I can have in this day
and age," said Kaye Anderson, a retired schoolteacher.
Nearby, Scott Thompson picked over the remains of a salad, his Springfield
Armory XD-35 sitting snugly in his hip holster.
The gangly graphics designer grew up in a home without guns and didn't think
of owning one until he started dating a woman -- now his wife -- who lived
in a rough neighborhood. One night last year, a youth had his head beaten in
with a pipe outside her bedroom window. The next day, Thompson got a
concealed-weapons permit.
Thompson found out about open carry last month while reading gun sites. He's
become a convert. He likes the statement it makes.
Glancing around the restaurant, as armed families like the Jensens dined
with men in cowboy hats and professionals like himself, Thompson smiled.
"I love this," he said. "I want people to be aware that crazy people are not
the only ones with guns. Normal people carry them."
The Jensens' daughter, Sierra, and newborn son, Tyler, began to get
restless, so the couple bundled up the children and pulled the manager of
the restaurant aside to thank her for hosting them.
A patron appeared at Jensen's side and began to berate him. "What you guys
are doing here is completely unacceptable," he said. "There are children
here."
Jensen said that everyone in the restaurant had a legal right to carry. The
man didn't back down and the Jensens left.
Days later, Jensen was still thinking about the reaction and the man's
belief that guns are unsafe.
"People can feel that way and it doesn't bother me," he said. "If they have
irrational fears, that's fine."